McClellan breaks their own record for retardant

See it in time-lapse video.

On Wednesday October 11 a new record was set for the number of gallons loaded into air tankers in one day at the air tanker base at McClellan Air Field near Sacramento — 311,000 gallons. But the next day, October 12, they blew that record out of the water, pumping 387,655 gallons.

With seven large fires burning within 40 to 80 miles of McClellan Air Field near Sacramento, the air tanker base there has been extremely busy for the last week with 12 air tankers working out of the facility at times.

Click on the Instagram image below to see a fascinating time-lapse video of aircraft activity at the base.

One thought on “McClellan breaks their own record for retardant”

I am not a fire aviation person, just an interested observer who often thinks in logistical terms. My question is about the availability of retardant. Nominally, it is the end of the active fire season, so my assumption is that the manufacturer was drawing down its inventory for the winter. Did they have the required volume of retardant in inventory? Or, are they ramping back up production to meet the present unexpected demand? Is the US having to ‘borrow’ stocks from Canada?

Personally, I’d love to read an article about production and transport of the massive volume of retardant during these fires, including info about where they are pulling that volume of mixing water from.